Nicola Felasquez Felaco (1985-) is an Italian graphic and web designer who combines the classical art medium of painting with modern pixel and vector designs. The results are large artworks that sometimes resemble cubist paintings, and sometimes seem to be viewed through a dew-speckled glass window. Most of Felaco’s paintings are portraits of people and characters that the artist admires. Even though the model has been distorted in the painting, their character is still recognizable. Notable faces that Felaco has painted in vector styles are award-winning musician David Bowie and Thom Yorke from the band Radiohead. Felaco has also created paintings of other famous characters like Mario and the Mona Lisa.
The appeal of Felaco’s paintings lie in the unusual presentation of recognizable characters. The painter has given art lovers a new way of viewing various people, characters and childhood heroes. Like cubist painters, Felaco gives the world a new perspective on life by distorting reality in his art works.
Because of his graphic and web design background, Felaco has a keen eye for color, creating mood in each painting through the combination of colors. Most of his paintings are based in a cool, calming color palette, with moments of vivid excitement grabbing the viewer’s attention with bold reds and creams.
Nicola Felaco has given himself a nickname, Felasquez, which is a word made from the combination of “Velasquez”; the name of a famous artist and his own surname, Felaco. He calls his style “Pixel on canvas”, removing graphic elements from computer screens and introducing them to the world of fine art paintings. Felaco has worked on graphic design projects with big names like Ferrari, Moleskine, Valentino Rossi and Ducati. Visit Nicola Felaco’s website for more artwork by this artist.
